Sunday Homily 6-19-11, Father’s Day, Trinity

Readings: Joshua 5, 9-12; Psalm 34; 2 Corinthians 5, 17-21; Luke 15, 1-32 (The Great Prodigal Son Story) A pre-homily Sunday.

Joshua

The scene: Moses has died just as the Jewish people are getting ready to enter their new land. Joshua takes the leadership. This book describes the defeat of the Canaanite people, and the division of the land.

In our chapter the Israelite people are camped outside Jericho before attacking the town. Yahweh is saying that he has removed the shame of the people for being slaves in Egypt. They are feasting.

2 Corinthians

This section of Corinthians informs the people that in Christ they are new people, a new creation.

The Prodigal Son: A Work of Art

This story is my favorite of the whole Bible. Note one thing: this is story, not history. The author carefully crafts his work of art to show how much God loves us. Let me give you three observations about the son, three about the father, and an extra three to show you how astounding this story is.

First, the younger son:

1. He has no right to ask for inheritance. None. By asking he is saying he wishes the father and the older son dead. A symbolic murder. Father can kill him for this.
2. He works feeding pigs instead of asking for help from the temple. This means he rejects the religious tradition and is considered a traitor not only to the family, but to the religion.
3. So as a horrible failure as a son of the family and a son of the religious tradition, he decides to return. He makes up his little speech and heads home. He is hungry to the point of dying. Do this or die. Many listening Jews would say, Die.

The Father: he actually commits as many crimes and sins as the son:

1. He runs down the road to the son when he sees him coming. A very undignified action. Outrageous.
2. He embraced and kissed the son. Huge violation of Jewish religious custom and law. By doing this the father positions himself outside of the religious & cultural community. He is a reject like the son.
3. He cuts the son’s speech off before he can say finish, eliminating the last sentence, "treat me as you would one of your hired workers." And to make it worse, he orders the servants to bring the finest robe, ring, and sandals.

The robe, the ring, and the sandals:

1. The robe: restores the son’s dignity.
2. The ring: gives authority to the son, even equal to the father and certainly more than before he left.
3. The sandals: gives the son freedom. Slaves were not given sandals so they would not run away. The father is doubling the message he gave when he cut the son’s speech off before he could say the third part about being treated as a servant.

A word about the older son, because we so often identify with him.

1. That he tells his father how he feels. Great. In those days, it meant the father can kill him. Today: communication.
2. What is his challenge: acceptance of his brother, his father, and himself; focus on gratitude for all he has; move from trying to be a good boy to loving? Any one of these? Or all? All.

I apologize for so much data. There is even more. The point is that the story is a carefully crafted work of art attempting to describe how totally loving our God is, toward us.

How does this image of God reflect your image of God?

Download the homily as an mp3 file for your iPod.

Acts 5:   Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them.

Revelation 1:I saw seven gold lampstands and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, wearing an ankle-length robe, with a gold sash around his chest.

John 20:   “My Lord and my God!”

 

 

Paul reading from the Acts of the Apostles

Music,   Ben & Shonda

 

Expenses: $   850.00

Outreach: $    520.00

Thanks again, Folks, for doing what you can.

 

 

Denni gets a cookie for her birthday.

 

 

Rosemary's Blessing:

Life is short …

Break the rules,

Forgive quickly,

Kiss slowly,

Love truly,

Laugh uncontrollably,

And never regret anything that made you smile.

Mark Twain

• Intro to Readings:

   

  Psalm 103 – In Psalm 103 we hear the psalmist’s description

  of God. This same verse is also in psalm 86 and 145, and in Exodus

   

  Ch 34 and Jonah Ch 4. It’s no wonder that, hearing these words,

  thanksgiving became one of the hallmarks of Christian communities.

   

  First Corinthians: Ch 1 Paul opens his letter to the

  Christian community in Corinth by giving thanks for the

  abundance of spiritual blessings they have received.

   

  Luke, in his Gospel, Ch 17, highlights how thanksgiving is

  the way to acknowledge blessings in our daily lives.

   

   

   

  Homily:

   

  Marv Knox is field coordinator for Fellowship Southwest, a

  ministry that provides services for people in the Rio Grande

  Valley, including refugees at the border, kids in public schools,

  disaster relief, and helping people avoid the unjust system of

  payday loans. His article in the Morning News on Friday inspired

  me. He wrote of the similarity between giving thanks and counting

  blessings. He proposes counting our blessings, as we do here

  every Sunday. People pretty much agree we’ve been living

  through hard times.

   

   It’s clear we are a nation divided. Some are still waiting to

  know the outcome of political races; when people are

  divided almost 50-50, counting and re-counting votes takes

  a lot of time.

   We’re still hearing of the forest-fire body counts, with

  hundreds still missing and unaccounted for.

   Refugees the world over, and at our own border, are hoping

  and asking for safety from danger.

   The chaos in Europe and confusion in our western alliance.
   Experiencing the results of global warming, with increased

  intensity and frequency of storms, floods and fires.

   The dropping and shaky stock market.

   The threat again of nuclear aggression from North Korea.

   These hard times, of course, are societal, shared by all;

  there are also the personal hard times we each live with,

  e.g., living with my sisters’ hurt and inability to speak with

  one another. You know your hard time—the anxiety, hurt,

  sadness or trauma you live with.

   

  Counting blessings moves our focus from the dark to the light.

  It helps us see what’s going right, even while we know much is

  going wrong.

   

  Counting blessings turns our attention away from ourselves to

  acknowledge the helpful actions of others.

   

  Counting blessings gives us hope. As we count blessings—

  and give thanks—we see that God is unchanging—ever faithful,

  loving, and abounding in kindness.

   

  Today, like every Sunday, we counted blessings in our lives.

  Imagine, rather than writing his letter to the Christian community

  in Corinth (Greece), Paul wrote to this Christian community,

  saying: I give thanks for your openness to God. There’s no end to

  what has happened in you; it’s beyond speech. The truth of Jesus

  has been clearly verified in your lives…. God will never give up on

  you. Never forget that.”

   

  So: How have you opened your eyes and minds to see and count

  blessings in your life?

Readings:  Job 38, 1-11; Psalm 107, Give Thanks to the Lord, his Love is Everlasting; 2 Corinthians 5, 14-17; Mark 4, 35-41 

 

Job:  

Today: You see the story in the papers about Jake Fleming?  20 year old UCLA student & tennis player, in town to visit best friend at SMU, part of group going to a concert at Fair Park, after the concert another group of white kids argue & one kid sucker punches Jake, he falls & hits his head on the street, is in an induced coma now because of bleeding inside his skull.  This kid bad?  He was planning on teaching little kids tennis during the summer.  Why do bad things happen?  Why suffering?  This is why the story of Job got put together.

The Story: Job is a good man, pious, married, affluent, 7 boys, 3 girls, obeys the Lord & his laws.  Satan makes a bet with Yahweh: you take away Job's goodies, he will curse you.  "Deal," says Yahweh.

Shortly after that, one day servants come to tell Job: 1. rustlers have taken his cattle & killed his servants; 2. lightning has killed his sheep & shepherds; 3. more rustlers took his camels & killed their caretakers; 4.  a storm has killed his 10 kids.  Job does not curse.  In fact, he makes the famous statement: "Naked I entered the world, naked I leave.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."

Satan then proposes another bet with Yahweh: let me afflict him bodily, he will curse you.  "Deal," says Yahweh.  Job is struck with leprosy and is expelled to the trash heap outside the town.    Job does not curse Yahweh, but he does say, "God, put a curse on the day I was born."

Then Job's wife and three friends all attack him, basically telling him to just die, because he is obviously a bad man.  Job says, "No, I've done nothing wrong."  Eventually he is rewarded by Yahweh, lives 140 more years and has 7 more sons and 3 daughters, plus more wealth.  

How many questions do you have?  How does a person's badness or goodness effect the bad things in his life?  Bad things don't happen to good folks?  That is the main proposition of Job, they do.  How about Yahweh making bets with Satan?  What about a Satan?

Author: not Moses.  A compilation of sources. 

Structure: a central poetic section with  a prose entry and a prose exit.  Perhaps the happy ending was also added.  Again, a parable, a fable, a myth, not history.

Date:  the present form was probably put together after the famous Babylonian Exile, i.e., ca. 550 BCE.

Our Selection: after Job complains, Yahweh responds rather critically, saying, "Who do you think you are," and, "Do you forget who I am?"   

Sources: Fr. William Most on line, Good News Bible, Wikipedia          

All Pro Dad

Being dads' day I have one story about my dad and 3 ideas about how to be an all pro dad. 

I do not know how we all survive adolescence, folks.  When I was a bratty teen-ager, my dad knew that anything he would say I would discount.  One of my best friends was pretty much the same way, my friend Pete, who was at the wedding, the FBI guy.

So my dad and Pete's dad made an arrangement where the four of us went out to eat at a restaurant once in a while.  I would talk with his dad while Pete would talk with my dad.

I admired his dad because he had worked in the FBI and was an exec at the local Chance Vought Air Plane company.  I still remember him telling me, "You can't fight city hall, John."  I guess I was, at school and in the neighborhood. 

    Suggestion 1: take the kid out for the special meal, just the two of you or with his/her pal & dad.  How often?  Maybe seasonally.  Then ask normal questions, how you doing, how is school, how is life at home?  What do you like best, your best friend?  Listen & converse.

    Suggestion 2: family meal, ideally 6-7 days a week, at least 3-4.  Again, ask normal questions, listen & converse.

    Suggestion 3: be a fun person by creating fun things to do, go camping, go to the beach, go canoing (down the Trinity), do a late night Baskin Robbins trip, bike (around White Rock or the Dallas & Plano trails), cook (like my dad used to make a cake every Saturday afternoon & he saved the bowls for me to lick clean).

 

So, how are you going to be an all pro dad?  All Pro Person?

Source (which I edited considerably): All Pro Dad (a helpful weekly service for dads), http://www.allprodad.com/playbook/viewarticle.php?art=5

AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2009-06-21.mp3

Picture 1: Dads Tony & Jerry, plus other suspects

Picture 2: Dads Mike, Tom, & Ray

Picture 3: Dads Charlie, Ray, & Tom

Picture 4: Julie & Doug at 23 years

 

Readings:

1 Kings  3, 5, 7-12,   The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream one night.

Psalm 119,   Lord, I love your commands.

Romans 8, 28-30,  All things work for good who love God.

Matthew  13, 44-52,  The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field.

                                                                                                        

 

Homily

Some of you are aware that Judy and I were recently in Iowa for a memorial celebration of her mother’s life.   Judy’s mother came to what would be our birthplace in Iowa from a farm in Missouri to take Nurse’s training from nuns of the order of St. Francis who came from Peoria, Illinois. They had had been sent there some years earlier to serve in a hospital and to assist doctors who were also being trained in Keokuk.  These nuns served another purpose for us by catechizing Marie; she received the sacraments of the Church there when she was 21. The good news of Jesus Christ, the treasure buried in the field, the pearl of great value, the net used by the disciples to catch men, and the instruction on the kingdom of heaven had become the desire of her heart.

 

 

 

 

This town where Judy and I were born has a beautiful park.  It is the heart of the town and Judy began the first part of our memorial celebration of Marie there, with a reading from the Proverbs 31; the reading was part of the old spoken of in today’s gospel.  The theme of our celebration was Marie as a giver of goodness and justice.   I carried the theme forward with a reading that I gave to begin the service we had at the gravesite.  It was from the Letter of James where he reminds a sect of Jewish Christians of the Perfect law, we are to love one another as Christ has loved us.  This new way of loving had fulfilled the Royal law from Leviticus of the OT, to love your neighbor as yourself.  

 

 

 

 In our first reading today from First Kings, Solomon has asked God for an understanding heart so that he could better serve God’s people wisely.  How were we shown this in 1 Kings? Recall the parable where Solomon determined which of the two prostitutes was the true mother of the child they had brought to him.

 

  

The wisdom that a scribe had read or heard about Solomon inspired him to construct that parable.   We were told last week that the seed sown by Christ spoken of in the parable was the Father’s word given to us by his Son. Today we were told that the treasure buried in the field, and the pearl of great value and the net sown in the sea to capture people is the good news of Jesus Christ that fulfills the wisdom of Solomon of the first reading.

  

 

When the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, the priests disappeared.  Scribes who were the interpreters of the Law and Prophets were still involved in the Sabbath Synagogue Service for Jews.  Recall that this service was built around a calendar of readings from the Law and the Prophets  and the singing of the Psalms to praise God and a teaching by the Scribes on the OT reading.  [It was the liturgy of the Word of the Jews.] For the Jews who became Christians, disciples of the kingdom of God, the Christian Liturgy of the Word would fulfill the Sabbath Synagogue Service. The gospel reading would  fulfill the expectation of the coming of the Messiah given in the OT reading; the homily given on the gospel reading replaced the OT teaching.  [This couldn’t happen, however, until the first gospel was written, copied and given to the Scribes. But who were the inspired writers of the gospels and its parables, and where did they come from?

 

 I propose to you that today’s gospel reading suggests to us that a good number of Scribes had been waiting for the coming of the Messiah. They believed that the sayings and teachings and writings of Jesus fulfilled that expectation given within the Law and the Prophets. They not only believed but wanted a good news of the Messiah preserved. Inspired Scribes, who were rabbis and disciples of the kingdom of God, were like a head of a household who took from their treasure both the new and old. The old was taken by the scribes from the OT; the new taken from the writings, teachings and sayings of Jesus, or in the case of this Matthew gospel, from earlier gospels.  The Sabbath Synagogue Service that kept Judaism alive they fulfilled by writing the gospels in parables so that Christianity, in harmony with the Law and Prophets, would be preserved.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, John, that red '55 Studebaker is still for sale.   I make you a good deal.  Better grab it before Rob grabs it for Beth.

 

Readings: 

Sirach 27, 4-7,   Tribulation is the test of the just.  

Psalm 92,  Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.  (The Beauty of Today, Stanza 1)

1 Corinthians 15, 54-58,    Where, O Death, is your sting?

Luke 6,  39-45, A good person produces good.

 

 

Spousal abuse!   No way!  You know the truth, Mike, you were there.

 

Sirach Observations

Who : an educated scribe living and writing in Jerusalem ca. 180 before Christ.  His work was translated from the original Hebrew into Greek by Ben Sira’s grandson in 132.

The Work: The chief loves of Ben Sira’s life were The law and the Temple rituals.  Consequently, his work falls into the Wisdom genre of writings. 

Lots of maxims, for example on fear, 

The fear of the Lord is glory & pride,                                                             

The fear of the Lord gladdens the heart,                                                       

For those who fear the Lord , all will end well.  (p. 809, New Jerusalem Bible)

 

 

Two great Jesuit alumni, Bob & Mike Bulger.   Only missing Ray.

 

Some amusing maxims:                                                                                     

Do not compliment a person, 11/2,                                                                   

Be careful about the kind of person you bring home, 11/29,                           

A father who loves his son will whip him often, 30/1,                                   

A woman has to take any man as a husband, but a man must choose his wife carefully, 36/21

Others focus on patience, uprightness, humility, and duties toward parents.  It is a large book with 51 chapters.

 

 

Jan takes care of everybody who walks in the door.

 

Sunday Homily, 3-3-19, 5 Ways to have a Happy Lent

If there is anything that every year makes me want to say ‘yuk,’ it is the beginning of Lent with its focus on sin.  Guess where we are, Folks, Ash Wednesday this week.  Instead of it being a downer focused on how bad I am and how I need to do penance, I would like to propose 5 ways to have a Happy Lent.

 

 

"Patricia, would you not like to take him home with you?"  sez Jan.

 

First, attitude.   You are not a sinner going to hell.  There is no hell, as I continually repeat.  Why do I say this: data free analysis to prove its reality.  Moreover, we have a God about whom Psalm 92 talks,

It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praise, to proclaim your kindness at dawn and your faithfulness throughout the night.

 

 

Emma, How come you look so pretty this morning?

 

Secondly, unclutter your environment.  Becky suggested this.  Have a box or bag.  Every week or every day put something into the bag, a shirt, a book, an old decoration.  Maybe Becky can use some of the stuff.

I must admit that I just put into the box headed for Half Price Books all my French books.  That was hard.  My memory is not as strong and I just don’t see me using the language enough.  I’ve  loved  languages.

 

 

 

Here they come, the offertory team, Lynda & Tom, Geri & Mike.

 

Thirdly, a good deed day.  Say ‘Good Morning’ to a stranger at Starbucks or at Central Market.  Call somebody whom you have not talked with in a while and say you are just calling to see how they are.  Take somebody to Romeos or Juliette’s.  Help out here at Legacy.  

Fourth.  Sorry, Folks.  Work out.  Exercise 4, 5 days a week.  Walk through the neighborhood.  Make it fun.   Enough of that. 
Try it, you will like it.

 

 

Mabel & her admirers, 

Fifth.  My favorite.  Gratitude.  Like Psalm 92 says,  It is good to give thanks.  Before you go to bed what is your blessing of the day?  Want to bet there is always something.

So, how are you going to have a Happy Lent?

 

 

Team Legacy Charter.  The Best.